Tuesday, December 1, 2015

review || I'LL BE THERE { blog tour } by Samantha Chase

SOURCE: PUBLISHERTOUR HOST: TASTY BOOK TOURSThis Montgomery Has a Head for Business

Working for Zach Montgomery is challenging on many levels-coming from a wealthy and powerful family, he lives by his own rules and doesn't answer to anyone. But Gabriella Martine has no intention of backing down. She's used to handling stubborn men, and it doesn't hurt that Zach is smart, charismatic...and gorgeous.

And a Heart for Adventure

Zach's perfect world is turned upside down when a climbing accident leaves him broken, angry, and maddeningly dependent. In his slow quest for recovery, Gabriella is always there to help...but as Zach comes to see his beautiful assistant in a new light, he is forced to re-evaluate what it really means to be a man worthy of Gabriella's love.

{ about samantha chase } .

New York Times and USA Today Bestseller/contemporary romance writer Samantha Chase released her debut novel, Jordan's Return, in November 2011. Although she waited until she was in her 40's to publish for the first time, writing has been a lifelong passion. Her motivation to take that step was her students: teaching creative writing to elementary age students all the way up through high school and encouraging those students to follow their writing dreams gave Samantha the confidence to take that step as well.

When she's not working on a new story, she spends her time reading contemporary romances, playing way too many games of Scrabble or Solitaire on Facebook and spending time with her husband of 25 years and their two sons in North Carolina.

{ excerpt } .

“Zach Montgomery,” Gabriella began seriously. “I was wondering if you were still looking for a roommate.”

A slow smile played across his lips. “A roommate? No.”

“No?”

He shook his head. “What I had in mind was a lot more…intimate.”

“Ooo…I like the sound of that,” she purred as she stepped closer. “I like the sound of that a lot. If you’re still looking for someone to fill that…position, I’d really like to be considered.”

“You would, huh? It would mean moving all of your things here.”

“Well then it’s your lucky night because I happen to have a ton of my stuff over there in the car just waiting to be moved in here.”

Zach’s eyes went wide. “Are you serious? You really have your stuff in Summer’s car?”

“I do. And if we don’t get them out soon, her car may just explode.”

Gabriella didn’t have a chance to say more because Zach lifted her up into his arms and swung her around.

“I take it this means you’re happy?” she asked.

“You have no idea,” he said. “So happy that I want to take you inside ride now and have my way…”

“Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! La la la la la!!” Summer sang out as she stepped from the bushes. “I don’t want to hear any more of that. Sheesh!”

Zach looked at his sister and chuckled. “What, may I ask, were you doing in the bushes?”

“I was going to snap a picture of you to prove to the world you really do smile. But then you went and got gross with your sexy talk and now I may have to stab pointy things in my ears. Blech.” She shuddered and walked over to her car. “C’mon. Give us a hand with all this luggage so I can go home and make Ethan give me a massage.”

“Oh, so you can talk about you and Ethan but I’m not allowed to mention sexy stuff with me and…”

“You’re doing it again!”

“I haven’t said anything yet!”

“But you were going to!” Summer said, pointing a finger at him. “Just…no talking. Just get the luggage and go in the house and don’t tell me about what happens after that!”

{ review } .

Those meddling fathers are at it again -- and I say 'fathers' because if you recall, William has now enlisted the help of his brother, Robert, in getting Robert's eldest hitched off.

In one of my earlier reviews in this series, I mentioned how some of the themes seem to repeat and that (at time of review) it annoyed me. The stories felt like the author had a singular theme she wanted to work on, and found different avenues to write that single theme.

And while the secretary theme is certainly not a new one, I absolutely loved how Ms. Chase wrote Gabrielle and Zach's story.

...granted, I knew I'd like them from the moment the both of them came across the pages earlier.

While it is unnecessary to read the previous books in the series, if you want to see how Robert and William work their 'magic', you'll see similarities with this next child of theirs. You'll also hear from Summer, Ryder, and James about how adventurous Zach is, as well as hear about how Zach was going up to Alaska.

...you may even catch on to the accident and the way Gabriella worried over her boss.

But that was all before. In this book, we get burly Zach and his recovery (or his lackthereof, if you were to talk to him), a Gabriella that's had just about enough of his sour ways, and of course, meddling old men who throw the two together but plant seeds in the youngins' minds that they really want to set Gabriella up with someone else in a different office. Oh! And more of the entire Montgomery clan -- I loved catching up with them all! And I loved Zach's siblings and their need for picture taking...

Of the entire series, I would probably venture to say this was my favorite. Definitely. I loved brooding Zach, even if his reasons for pushing away the original easiness with Gabriella were annoyingly male. I loved how strong Gabriella was, even though I wanted more for her by way of her family -- I sided with Zach on that front, but completely understood why she wouldn't push them away once and for all. I loved that he called her Gabs (because she hated Gabby). I loved Zach's eventual friendship with the final therapist to cross his path -- kudos, Alex, for not putting up with his crap, but also taking the time to listen to Zach's fears and needs.

The other part that I appreciated was that the true turn-of-relationship for these two didn't happen until well in to the story. Of course, as Zach tells it, the relationship was five years in the making but... So while I appreciated that relationship didn't truly happen until the last third or so of the book, it did make the end events of the story seem rather rushed. The set up of the story was extremely consistent and flowed well; the friendship/co-worker-ship turned to relationship at a fairly organic time; but the relationship to the 'boom'/demise happened too quickly, and I felt that Gabrielle was a bit wishy-washy with her wants and actions at the very end.

Samantha Chase writes extremely well; I sometimes feel, though, that she has a grand idea and writes up to it in a great fashion, only to push through her idea to get to the end. This was a story that could have easily been a great deal longer, though, so I suppose sometimes 'rush' is warranted.

a quick note from { mignon } ...

I AM NO LONGER ACTIVE IN REVIEWING

The last two years has been incredibly rewarding, giving me the opportunity to pick up new-to-me authors, as well as new-to-the-world authors. I have enjoyed supporting publishing houses as well as the indie author, and in doing so, I learned a lot about the marketing aspect of writing a book and selling it as a self-published author.

I have re-focused my journey to more writing-minded. I still read and review! But not nearly at the rate I was; three books a day has turned to three books a month.

I will no longer be accepting individual review requests (unless it's specifically author-to-author, then it will be highly considered).

I will definitely be posting reviews for commitments I have already made, though.Thank you for understanding, & thank you to all those I have worked with over the last year plus!

GOODREADS updates

He is the exact public person I despise. You know the type -- all biblical with publicized praying and verses all over his public persona. Great. Good for you. Bet you're not like that behind closed doors...

Which is exactly what Esther thinks of him.

Saint and Esther attend the same super religious college. Esther is on the fast track to becoming a nun, and no I do not kid, and Saint, given name Francis, can do just about whatever he wants, because he is the star athlete and the school knows he has connections. What in the world can these two have in common? The actions of their parents.

But where Saint does what his father says, usually, because his father is pushing him toward a pro-football careers, Esther follows her parents (father) because if she didn't... Her life would literally be a living hell.

I really enjoyed these two, once we started to get to know Saint a little bit better. My only drawback with the book would be the last half goes by in super-fast time. While it helped to keep the story moving, I would have liked to see more of that time drawn out so the feelings and emotions of our two characters felt more genuine and real -- rather than simply a two month courting that their lives demanded.

I'm giving the book the full 5 stars because it came out of left-field for me. It was a book that I didn't expect to like, but the author wove it in a way that I fell hard for our characters both as individuals and as a couple. I liked watching Esther grow and find her voice in life, just as I liked watching playboy, always for the chase Saint, settle down and find a person to be terribly protective over. I loved him most in the last two chapters.

Here's something you may know about me if you've followed my reviews -- I'm an epilogue reader. I will almost always read the epilogue first. Call me a spoilsport or no fun, or whatever but that's how I've been reading books for years. It's no wonder that when I write books, I tend to have the epilogue all figured out before I even start with "Once upon a time...".

That said... I read this epilogue and while I liked it, I just couldn't get past the ages of our characters. Couldn't do it. So I read the beginning. Still... If anything, the age of our characters was even more pronounced. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to read this. You see, I have an issue with "Happily ever after" and the hardly-twenty crowd, let alone an eighteen year old.

But that's my hang-up.

Another thing you may know about me? I will sometimes read a book in what I call a inside-out fashion. I jump all over the place until I find a snippet of story that absolutely grips me. And people -- there are a few of those parts in Everything. So because I found those gripping parts, I put my faith in Erin Noelle, and I started from page one -- and I gave Everett and Belle a chance.

And I'm so glad I did.

Everett and his twin sister have been making music forever -- literally. They're the children of a rockstar; music has always been their life. When their father's group decides to get back together (dad always said he'd go back when the twins were done with school), Mason tells the label -- if you take me, you're taking my kids: thus, giving Everett and Ashlynn the opportunity to take their music to a larger level than they have before.

Along the way, with a local gig, Everett meets Belle -- and so begins their story.

This is a story about growing up. This is a story about following your heart -- be it for a person or a career, or even both. It is about learning to trust the person you are giving your heart to, and about taking the ever-looming jump into unknown feelings. When you put your life, your wants, your desires in someone else's hands, the world opens up -- and it certainly does for Everett and Belle.

The part I most appreciated was that the author made Everett true to his age and situation. Belle was too, yes, but it was Everett and his new lifestyle that had me wanting to see true characterization for. He's a guy; he's a musician; he's new to love. He makes mistakes. And for those mistakes, I truly got on board with this story.

Everett and his Tinker Bell were incredibly cute. I liked that there's a decent time jump at the end, further allowing -- you guessed it -- growth of our characters. I'm excited to watch more of them when (if?) Ashlynn's story comes out.

TOURING with ...

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Contact { mm:r }

FTC Disclosure

Unless otherwise stated, all books I review are books I've received for free from the author or publisher. I receive nothing, monetary or otherwise, for expressing my opinion and/or promoting the books. I do, however, participate in the Amazon Affiliate program, and as such I do receive a small commission when these links are clicked. Affiliate links and free books in no way affect my opinion.